[2] In 1849 The Metropolitan Freehold Land Society was formed, led by such prominent MPs as Joshua Walmsley, Joseph Hume and above all Richard Cobden.

The 1852 Prospectus clearly stated that “The special objects of this Society are to facilitate the acquisition of freehold land, and the erection of houses thereon – to enable such of its members as are eligible, to obtain the county franchise”.

All the capital was subscribed by the National’s own investors but although British Land was financially distinct, there was a commonality of directors and staff.

This gave it two important advantages: it could act under its own name and it afforded limited liability to its members, probably a comfort after the events of 1878.

[3] However, even after the War, the Abbey Road “was little known outside the borough of Paddington in which it was situated” The catalyst for change was the arrival of Sir Harold Bellman, later a commanding figure in the building society sector.

He overhauled every aspect of the operations, introduced improvements, advertised in the national press and opened branches outside the Society’s home area.

WWII brought a cessation to new housebuilding and the building societies preoccupation was supporting mortgage owners and the consequences of bomb damage to properties.

The National’s Chairman, Stanley Ramsey, argued that greater scale would be needed to deal with the financial challenges of reconstruction and in 1943 he proposed a merger to the Abbey Road.

The merger under the Abbey National Building Society name was implemented at the beginning of 1944 with Sir Harold Bellman as Chairman and Stanley Ramsey as his deputy.

Between 1951 and 1954, the Conservative government removed building controls and the growth in home ownership and private housebuilding resumed.

Eventually, 1963 saw the departure of the “old guard”: Chairman Harold Bellman died aged 76; Bruce Wycherley, general manager of the National from 1933 and chief executive of the merged group from 1948, resigned, as did Stanley Ramsey the “original architect” of the merger.

He led a wide range of marketing initiatives, perhaps the best known being the registration of the name “Granny Bonds” to rival the National Savings product.

Thornton worked with Local Authorities to finance inner city renovation, one of the best-known examples being the loan of £3m to the Stockbridge Village Trust to help regenerate 4,000 houses on a rundown council estate in Knowsley.

It was floated on the London Stock Exchange at £1.30 per share, resulting in an unusually large number of small shareholders – approximately 1.8 million initially.

The demutualisation process was marred by the discovery of a large number of undelivered share certificates awaiting destruction at a contractor's premises.

[15] In July 1994, Abbey National purchased James Hay, one of the United Kingdom's foremost independent providers of self administered pensions.

[16] James Hay then went on to grow in strength and launched Abbey Wrap, a service in which IFAs can keep the clients' ISAs, PEPs, offshore bonds, and SIPP in one place.

This eventually undid the company, however, when Enron turned out to be unsafe and the 11 September attacks in New York damaged confidence in various financial areas.

The chief executive, Ian Harley, a long-time Abbey employee, resigned and his post was filled by an outsider, Luqman Arnold.

[30] Francisco Gómez Roldán took over as chief executive from Luqman Arnold, who received a rumoured £5 million, made up of pay off and share options.

In July 2007, Abbey admitted that errors that it made in the 1980s have contributed to many borrowers' mortgage terms being extended by up to 15 years.

During this period – which saw considerable turbulence in interest rates – Abbey extended the terms on customers' repayment style mortgages without their knowledge.

[33] As a result of the banking crisis of 2008, Abbey purchased the savings business and branches of Bradford & Bingley in September 2008 following the nationalisation of B&B by HM Government.

[36] On 27 October 2008, Abbey reached an agreement to sell Porterbrook to a consortium of Deutsche Bank, Lloyds TSB and Antin Infrastructure Partners.

[39] Abbey's registered office was in London (built on the site of the former Thames Television studios in Euston Road) and its main corporate centre was in Milton Keynes.

Business Banking operations, both administrative and telephony, were also based in Glasgow, having been moved from Taunton and Newport early in 2005.

[41] This was subsequently subsumed into the more general telephony operations and the original contact centre based in Billericay was closed in April 2009.